


Christmas 2018

by fragilecapricornpanic



Series: PRE-WRITTEN, Pre-Canon Sibling Encounters [91]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Humor, Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves Friendship, Canon Compliant, Christmas, Christmas Angst, Christmas Fluff, Diego Hargreeves is Bad at Feelings, Everyone Needs A Hug, Feels, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Ghost Ben Hargreeves, Humor, Klaus Hargreeves Needs Help, One Shot, POV Alternating, Parent Allison Hargreeves, Pre-Canon, Reginald Hargreeves Bashing, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Soft Luther Hargreeves, Vanya Hargreeves Deserves Better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:55:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28302687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fragilecapricornpanic/pseuds/fragilecapricornpanic
Summary: One Shot based on Christmas Day, 2018. The last Christmas the siblings experienced before the 2019 apocalypse. It’s from all of their perspectives! Canon compliant.
Relationships: Allison Hargreeves/Patrick, Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, The Hargreeves Family
Series: PRE-WRITTEN, Pre-Canon Sibling Encounters [91]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1869709
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	Christmas 2018

**Author's Note:**

> This is kind of angsty, so don’t read this for a cutesy fic lol! 
> 
> Written from their subjective POVs
> 
> Also this isn’t chronological like its at different times throughout the day, depending on the character

Sat in utter isolation, Luther watched his clock count down the minutes until the new day began. December 25th. They’d never celebrated Christmas as children, since dad said it was childish and illogical. They _had_ learned about Jesus’ supposed birth, just as they learned about every religion. Every last boring one of them. It still felt depressing to be alone up here though, on today of all days. It was almost as bad as their birthday in terms of loneliness. All Luther had was his plant, which wasn’t the best company. Did this have to be a solo mission? It would be appreciated if dad sent Luther a Merry Christmas message for once, but Luther knew his father was extremely busy. Plus Reginald didn’t like this holiday, that expectation was unrealistic. Dad loved Luther in his own way.

When it finally hit 12:00, Luther didn’t know what he should do. He had nothing to celebrate with. No party poppers, no cake, and certainly no alcohol. That had never been his thing anyway, it was poison. Instead he chose to look across the horizon and stare down at Earth, like he did every day. It meant more today though. His family were almost all Luther thought about when he looked down at his home planet. The only other thing was his momentous pride, Luther was extremely proud to be protecting the world whilst stationed here on the moon. His family came first in his thoughts though, they always did. Luther knew he couldn’t communicate it well, but he loved them all. Every one of them, living or deceased... even Diego.

Mostly he thought about Allison... what was she doing this Christmas?

  
  


“I’m her _mother._ It’s Christmas, you can’t keep her away from me!” Allison hissed, clutching the phone so tight that it may just burst. Her soon to be ex-husband was acting like Allison was some kind of risk. She’d never put Claire in harms way, Allison would protect her daughter with her life. She would genuinely die for Claire without a second thought. Not being with her felt like dying. Separating them at this time of year was nothing short of cruel and callous.

Although they weren’t face to face, Allison could picture Patrick’s sour and sanctimonious expression. “Did you go to therapy yet?” Patrick asked in a way that was obviously rhetorical, since they both knew Allison was adamantly against that. She didn’t need therapy, she needed Claire. If anything was going to make Allison need therapy, it was being kept apart from the person she loved the most. No parent could cope with this. How was little Claire feeling amongst all of this drama?

“Just one call. Please, Patrick.” Allison shakily whispered, her words catching in her throat. “I won’t rumor her, I love her.” The tears were growing harder to fight back, her sobs beginning to become audible. This was so embarrassing, Allison didn’t want Patrick to have the satisfaction of hearing her break down. Not again. This was simply too painful, the crying was impossible to stifle. All Allison wanted was to hear Claire’s voice, to tell her that she loves her. Things weren’t amicable right now, Patrick was straight up refusing for Allison to have any contact whatsoever.

“Your love never stopped you rumoring her in the past.” Patrick sniped before abruptly hanging up, leaving Allison with her mouth half agape. The most agonizing part of that statement was that it was true. No matter how hard Allison justified things to herself, she knew she’d messed up... all she could hope now was that this catastrophe wasn’t irreparable. Placing the phone back on the hook, Allison lovingly sniffed Claire’s old teddy bear that she’d had as a baby. She’d been so tiny, so small and innocent. Now she was suffering and without her mother. What if she felt unloved just as Allison had at Christmas as a child? Allison had worked tirelessly to make sure Claire never felt that way, to build beautiful memories of Christmas.

Wiping her tears away, Allison halfheartedly snorted when she saw the mascara that came off on her hand. It reminded her of Klaus. She’d tried to get him to use waterproof eye makeup once, but he apparently liked it smudged. What the hell was he doing for Christmas?

  
  


“Merry Christmas.” Ben greeted, with a purposefully sarcastic tone, as soon as Klaus had woken up. There was nothing merry about Christmas for them, and there never was. Ben was dead and sometimes it felt like Klaus wanted to be dead too. The food looked so good at this time of the year too, and Ben couldn’t take a single bite. He couldn’t truly remember how it felt to taste things anymore, it had been too long.

Homeless shelters were hopelessly bleak at the best of times, but Christmas made them feel so much worse. At least it wasn’t rehab. “Can you hold off the sarcasm for like, ten minutes?” Klaus sleepily whined, shuffling to dangle his legs from his bunk. Klaus often considered keeping a tally of when Ben said something that wasn’t sarcastic, since those occasions were so rare. That took far too much effort though, Ben usually counted things for Klaus.

“I can.” Ben calmly agreed, focusing back on his book. He’d practically memorised the words at this point, reading was merely sentimental. “I won’t though.” Ben uttered, feeling nice and smug. It was times like this that Ben longed for the ability to be an English teacher. He could get so much joy out of being pettily pedantic. His brother groaned like an adolescent and stomped away to the bathroom, making Ben feel like he was a teacher anyway. At a school for delinquents. 

—

“I hate Christmas, I think I might be Jewish.” Klaus drawled to Ben whilst they gawped at a fake Santa. This supposed Santa was just a drunk guy in a weird outfit. If Klaus wanted to see that, he’d simply look in the mirror. These guys in costumes were everywhere though, on every goddamn block in this city. This holiday was unfortunately unavoidable. Like Ben’s nagging. 

Ben wasn’t actually staring at Santa, he was effectively just staring at Klaus whilst he stared at Santa - which was even worse. “You do know you can not celebrate Christmas without being Jewish?” Ben followed Klaus when he continued walking, presumably having grown bored of giving Santa a death glare. “Can we go see that?” Ben pointed at the huge billboard for the Christmas movie staring their sister. Ben missed her face. He missed everything about her. Seeing Allison on the big screen wasn’t enough, but it was better than nothing.

Movie tickets costed at least ten dollars, which was way out of Klaus’ budget. That cash could be spent on drugs, which were of utmost importance to him. Ben could go on his own anyway, nobody could even see him enter the theatre. He had a free pass to literally anywhere. “We can!” Klaus cheerily agreed, doing a little excited skip. “We won’t though.” Klaus gave Ben a taste of his own medicine, as well as his middle finger. 

Ugh, Ben regretted saying that earlier. “I wish I was with Diego instead.” Ben muttered, sounding like a child with divorced parents. If only Diego could have Ben for weekends and holidays... they could go to the library. Klaus never took Ben to the library. Was Diego going to spend Christmas inside that dingy boiler room? That concept was almost more depressing than how Ben and Klaus were spending it.

  
  


Switching on the flickering lights of the gym, Diego sighed at how alone he felt in this big, empty room. Al had invited him over to his place for Christmas, he always did. His family of insanely loud Italians didn’t seem like the kind of atmosphere Diego would like to be around. Especially on Christmas. Today made Diego feel even more bitter than usual, stirring up all of his resentments. They were never allowed to be children, on Christmas or any other day of the year. Ben and Five never got the chance to have a real Christmas. Screw dad.

Needing to brood, Diego grabbed his police scanner and sauntered over to his car. There were always plenty of crimes at Christmas. As he turned on the car radio, Diego morbidly hoped to hear the announcement of dad’s death. “But you’re so old!” Diego disappointedly moaned, hearing no such announcement or discussion. Taking a few moments to mope, Diego set off towards the richer parts of town. Christmas was a prime time for rich folks being burgled, fighting a thief would be a decent distraction from these feelings. 

The radio was too sickly sweet about festivities, so Diego angrily flicked through the channels as he drove. A classical music channel caught him off guard, almost making him stall the car. Diego furiously scowled, reminded of Vanya and what she did to them. He hastily turned the radio off. In the back of Diego’s brain, a very quiet and neglected voice was worried about Vanya. She had no family anymore, even less than she had had prior to the book. There was no doubt for Diego that she’d be spending today alone too. 

Cracking his neck in an attempt to relax, Diego pushed that thought out of his mind entirely. She wrote that book, she deserved the consequences. Would she even acknowledge Christmas, or would she ignore it like Diego?

  
  


Chinese food was a staple for many people who didn’t celebrate Christmas, and that applied to Vanya too. Walking home after collecting her takeout, Vanya sighed when she was confronted by Allison’s face on a poster. Did she really have to be in quite so many Christmas movies? It was hard to avoid her sister’s face all throughout the year, Christmas was a new extreme though. People couldn’t get enough of her dressed as an elf, apparently. Hallmark alone likely paid Allison more each Christmas than Vanya earned in an entire year. 

Weaving through the drunken people on the sidewalk, Vanya must have apologised thirty times just for having to walk past them. Why did she feel sorry for every single thing she did? Even for waking up she sometimes felt like she owed the world an apology. Her biological mother must’ve said sorry as soon as Vanya was born. Vanya wanted to say sorry to her too. Although she deeply resented her father, she sort of wanted to apologise to him for being an ordinary child.

The irony of being an immaculate conception just like Jesus wasn’t lost on Vanya. Christmas still sucked though. Happy families were everywhere, and Vanya had never had a seat at that table. She barely even got a seat at the upsetting table of their youth. Her super siblings must be enjoying themselves today, why wouldn’t they? They had everything that Vanya didn’t. Vanya felt with certainty that she would be the only Hargreeves feeling lonely and miserable today. All Vanya had was her violin. At least nobody could ever take that from her.

As she approached her apartment, Vanya came to a stop when she saw Mrs Kowalski’s famous cat in the hallway. Sneakily peering up and down the hall to check if anyone was around, Vanya smirked when she found she was alone. “Mr. Puddles. Ps, ps, ps...” Vanya whispered, beckoning for the cat to come over. He padded along to her, so she unlocked her apartment door. His owner wouldn’t miss him for an hour or so, she had family over anyway. For Vanya, Mr. Puddles could replace the friend, or significant other, that every functional adult in the western world spent Christmas with. That thought was pathetic, Vanya was completely aware of that.

Once the door was closed, Vanya crouched down to pet the adorable cat. His presence was already soothing. “Can I call you Puddles? Mr sounds so formal...” They were never allowed pets as children, that strayed too close to fun. Something that their father definitively banned. Mom had tried to convince dad once, which Vanya had found peculiar since mom was their dad’s creation. Diego would use that as evidence for her being a person... Vanya didn’t want to think about him though. Just as he undoubtedly didn’t want to think about her. Nobody did, except for this cat sat in front of her.

Now that Vanya had some time with Mr. Puddles, she didn’t know what the hell she could do with him. “Do you like Chinese food?”

**Author's Note:**

> NEVER actually give a cat chinese food lol
> 
> I don’t know if I posted a Vanya fic since Elliot came out? Anyways, I don’t think I have any pre-written Vanya ones left now I’ve posted this. However if I find/write any more pre-canon fics including Vanya, written from their subjective POVs, I will refer to Vanya as we met her in the series (she/her). Obviously Vanya is a character and is separate from Elliot, and we don’t yet know how he is going to approach playing Vanya in season 3. Gender bending happens a lot in acting, so it’s up to what Elliot feels they are comfortable with doing ❤️ I’m excited to see how the show adapts, if it does. So as far as we know _right now_ , Vanya uses she/her. I just want to keep things canon compliant when writing pre-canon, though I would of course always always use Elliot's correct pronouns and name, as they are separate to Vanya. Obviously I’m a fan of the actors (Elliot in particular lol) but I write fics with the characters in mind, rather than the actors :) 
> 
> Merry Christmas/happy holidays!


End file.
